The best articles on Web Hosting, Website Design, Site Promotion, Search Engine Optimization, Affiliate Programs, and other subject of interest to Webmasters -- selected by the Cheap Web Hosting Report staff

Web Host Cloud

Monday, June 8, 2009

Landing Page Tips for Better Results

by Karen Scharf

Whether you're driving traffic through organic search, pay per click, affiliate marketing, direct mail, email campaigns, social media, whatever, your landing page will make or break your conversions. Follow these few simple tips to create a landing page that produces results: Create multiple landing pages for different purposes While you probably already know that each page should focus on its own keyword set, you may not have considered that each landing page should also focus on its own traffic source.

A visitor coming to you from an organic search will more than likely be at a different point in the buying cycle and a different place on the "know-like-trust scale" than someone visiting your website from your Facebook page. Utilize different calls to action Just as website visitors will be in different phases of the buying cycle and on different places on the know-like-trust scale, the way you communicate with these site visitors will be different.

You'll probably want to use gentler, kinder verbiage with organic traffic, such as "request additional information" while you can be more personable with your Twitter traffic such as "give it to me now!" But no matter who the audience is, be sure to include your call to action in various locations throughout your page. Keep it clean and simple When it comes to landing pages, the simpler the better. Pretend you're setting up the page for a 3rd grader. Your visitor needs to figure out exactly how to do whatever it is you want him to do in three seconds or less. If a 3rd grader can't complete the task with relative ease in a few seconds, chances are your site visitor is not going to stick around to figure it out either.

Make sure your landing page has one call to action. Do not use technology for technology's sake. Eliminate every possible distraction. Make your copy easy to read. Take advantage of eye tracking. And test, test, test. Don't ask for more information than is necessary Do you really need to know your visitor's company name in order to email a free download? If not, remove it from the form. But be careful not to go over board with this technique. If you've been in business for five years and all you have is a list of first names and email addresses, you've done something wrong along the way.

Progressive information gathering is essential to the lead scoring process, so consider where your landing page fits into your marketing funnel before arbitrarily wiping out all your form fields. Tell your visitors what you'll do with their information Let your readers feel secure when providing you with their personal information by telling them exactly what to expect. Will they be receiving a download via email? Will they be added to your mailing list? How often will they hear from you? By letting your visitor know what to expect upfront, you'll be assuring yourself of more qualified leads who actually want to hear from you. Test, test, test, test, test Before you publish your landing page, test it in different browsers. Test on different operating systems. Test for mobile display. Once your landing page is live, split-test your headlines, your graphics, your body copy.

Test our calls to action, test your email follow up. Try different combinations and tweak every component until you find the perfect fit for the optimal conversion rate.

About the Author

Karen Scharf is an Indianapolis marketing consultant who works with small business owners and entrepreneurs. She offers several whitepapers, free reports and checklists, including her FREE Can-Spam checklist and FREE email pre-flight checklist to ensure your emails get delivered, get opened and get read. Download your copies at http://www.ModernImage.com.

About This Library

Article sites are flooded with articles on Web Design and Search Engine Optimization (i.e. ways to get your site to show up high in the important search engines). Sometimes dozens of new articles are added every week. Most are not worth the effort it takes to read them. A few, however, are truly interesting and useful.

For this blog, the Cheap Web Hosting Report staff will post the best web design and search engine optimization articles we find on articles sites. We'll try our best to separate the small amount of meat from the piles of bone and gristle.